the POYi Magazine Photographer of the Year, has spent the last ten years working for National Geographic in places as diverse as the Siberian Arctic, Sudan, Pakistan, India, Thailand, Newfoundland, Guyana, American Samoa, Turkey, Republic of Georgia and the South Pacific.

Olson was awarded Newspaper Photographer of the Year in 1992, one of only two photographers to win the title in both media.

Olson was also awarded An Alicia Patterson Fellowship to support a seven-year project documenting a family with AIDS. His story on problems with Section 8 housing earned him a Robert F. Kennedy Award. He was awarded the Nikon Sabbatical grant in 1996. The Pittsburgh resident is a graduate of the University of Kansas and the University of Missouri.

Olson is married to another acclaimed photographer, Melissa Farlow, who also works for National Geographic. He recounts how their paths can diverge in strange ways:

“I hired gun-runners to go into a no-fly-zone in Sudan and filled the plane with 3 tons of food and medical supplies. We land in the last rebel holdout – they’ve been bombed and harassed to the point that people only have leaves to eat. It’s 130 degrees. I’m in a forest that harbors flesh-eating parasites, and I’m covered with hundreds of the stickiest flies I’ve ever seen. I call Melissa on the satellite phone. She is photographing a $72 million Kentucky racehorse in an air conditioned barn with chandeliers and cupolas.”